Bøger af Judith Henry Wall

A deeply involving and beautifully written novel of a Texas family and three generations of its women -- a story about mothers, daughters, sisters, and the bonds of trust that can bind or destroy a family Justine and Martha Claire Mayfield were born shortly after World War I and grew to womanhood as both sisters and inseparable friends, yet each harbored very different dreams for her future. Martha Claire envisions the American dream: a husband, a house, and -- most of all -- a baby. She marries Grayson Stewart, son of the town's most successful businessman. He is everything Martha Claire could ever have hoped for in a man -- handsome, affectionate, and considerate. However, more than a husband -- more than anything in the world -- Martha Claire wants a child. Everything in her life has been dedicated to preparing herself for motherhood. Without it, she feels she can never be complete. Justine has a very different plan for herself, and despite the similarity of the sisters' upbringing, she and Martha Claire are very different people. Chafing at the narrow confines of her lazy Texas town, Justine joins the Women's Army Corps when World War II begins. She envisions a glamorous, adventure-filled life on her own as a photographer. So it is with no little irony that when the war ends, Martha Claire is to be found back home, feathering a still-empty nest, while Justine returns from Europe suffering both the physical and mental distress of finding herself pregnant and unwed. It is from this starting point that Judith Henry Wall's poignant and affecting novel follows these women as they set about living lives of compromise: for Martha Claire, the agony of being barren; for Justine, the frustration of loving her daughter, Iris, yet longing for the freedom to live life on her own terms. With much of the story seen through the eyes of Cissy, the daughter Martha Claire makes her own through adoption -- and whose own story becomes an integral part of the novel -- My Mother's Daughter takes the reader on a journey into a world of seeming comfort and happiness that masks the darkness and frustrations and deadening discontent of unfulfilled dreams and -- ultimately -- to the worst kind of betrayal one sister can inflict upon another. Through the epic events and tumultuous changes of the second half of the twentieth century, and through the little tragedies that mark daily lives, the reader comes to know intimately and care deeply for these women and to understand the world they lived in and the forces that shaped them. My Mother's Daughter is masterful, memorable storytelling of the highest order.

After their father's death, sisters Vanessa, Ellie, and Georgiana are stunned to learn a well-kept family secret. A yellowed letter tucked away in a family Bible reveals that the woman who gave birth to their late father had not died when he was born, as they had always believed. Their paternal grandmother gave up her son shortly after his birth, leaving this note with instructions to never reveal her name or background to him. The letter is signed, simply, Hattie. The sisters are each at a turning point -- Vanessa is feeling stifled in a stale marriage and career; Ellie is perpetually single but desperately wants marriage and motherhood; and baby sister Georgiana is a successful model but longs to do something more serious with her life. Seizing upon the idea of finding their long-lost grandmother, the women set out on a trip to Montana, where they hope not only to find their father's birth mother but also to rekindle their bonds of sisterhood and possibly even find their true selves. But they have no idea of the consequences of their quest. If the sisters find Hattie and live to tell their story, everything Hattie has worked and dreamed for will be destroyed. Will she allow the sisters to uncover the family secret and escape alive?

To a penniless twenty-year-old like Jamie Long, surrogate motherhood seemed both an act of altruism and a financial opportunity. But once pregnant and under contract to Amanda Hartmann, the head of a famous evangelical family, Jamie realizes that she's getting more than she bargained for. Whisked away to the vast, isolated family ranch, she's closely supervised and carefully cut off from the outside world. She learns the family's dark secrets -- and sees the enormity of their ruthlessness. When Jamie hears Amanda's plan to claim the baby as her natural-born child, she begins to suspect that her own life is in danger and resolves to flee. Alone with a tiny newborn, she calls on the one man in the world she can trust -- her high school crush, Joe Brammer. Their love unites them in a struggle to escape, and soon enough their flight becomes a fight for their lives. Brilliantly weaving some of today's most controversial social issues into a captivating page-turner, The Surrogate is Judith Henry Wall's greatest triumph to date.

From the acclaimed author of The Girlfriends Club a deeply affecting novel that tests the bonds of friendship against the long-buried pangs of first loveRhonda, Gina Kay, and Holly were the best of friends in their small-town Texas high school until the day Gina Kay ran off and married Rhonda's boyfriend, Terry Robertson. Now, twenty-five years later, news of Terry's sudden death has reunited them, and brought to the surface old bonds and betrayals they thought they'd left behind. The three old friends share a trip to New York City, where Gina Kay promises to finally reveal why and how she stole the love of Rhonda's life and ruined a friendship that was supposed to last forever. Over the course of that tumultuous trip, the women find themselves reconsidering their lives, the choices they made, the men they married, and all the paths not taken. As girls, they were stifled by their parents' expectations, small-town life, and the inevitability of biology. How many of their dreams did they actually pursue, and how many have they relinquished? If Rhonda had married Terry instead, would all of their lives have turned out differently? A Good Man is a novel about good friends, first loves, shocking disloyalty, long-held secrets, and that ever-present question -- what if?